This manuscript carries one of the most beautiful and mysterious texts found among
Dickinson's late papers. Its presence among these papers suggests, moreover, that
in the 1870s and 1880s she may have been working in a new form that oscillates
between prose and verse. The language and cadence of the extrageneric fragment owe
much to Dickinson's reading in the Bible; see especially "The Parable of the Sheep
and the Goats" in Matthew 25:31–46: "And he shall set the sheep on his
right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I
was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and
ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto
me. . . ." The text appears to be an intermediate-copy draft. Dickinson turned the
sheet of stationery upside-down before composing the text but then wrote neatly
within the rule. After filling the recto and verso of the first leaf, she
completed the text on the recto of the second leaf. Dickinson made several
internal revisions during the initial drive of composition, canceling words,
substituting others, and setting down unresolved variants. Several of the
interlineations, including the variant choices for "guide" ("gait"; "pace"); "gay"
("strange"); and "We have" ("There are"), were probably added at this time.
Dickinson used wavy vertical lines and open brackets to cordon off variants added
during the course of composition and, perhaps, to help direct the reader-writer's
passage through the text. She appears to have gone through the draft a second
time, at which point she may have canceled "sunny" and "one," and jotted down
variants for "many" ("numbers"); "only" ("one"); "retire" ("Expire"); "occupying"
("ascertaining," "certifying -," "ratifying," "estimation"); "Heart" ("Head");
"befriends" ("provides"); and "and" ("but"). These variants, composed in a smaller
hand, appear both supralinearly to the words they are alternates for, and sideways
along the right edge of the paper. Dickinson may have intended to excerpt the
brief, bracketed poem for use elsewhere; see Poems (1955), P 1772
and Poems (1998), Appendix 9.

< a841.txt.1; fragment_extrageneric >
As it takes but a momentof imagination to placeus
anywhere, it wouldnot seem worth ourwhile to stay where itwas
stale -
Sere must be theinertia that could re- sistthis sunny
Journey -
To
many
numbers
it is their
only
one
trip, nor would theyExchange it -
Other Sails must slack -other steeds
retire -
Expire
but this is its' owndivine Relay -
We thank thee ohFather for this
gay
strange
guide
gaitpace
to Daysunbound,

<verso (A 841v)>and whose search but surpasses the
occupying
-
ascertaining -
certifying -
ratifying -
Estimation
(Let me not thirstwith this Hock at myLip, nor
beg, withDomains in my Pocket -)
Has any not whereto lay his
Heart,
Head
here is he
befriends
provides
him -
A Stranger and yetook me in -
We have
(There are men have
two Saviors -an Earthlyand a Heavenly -
This one is theHeavenly, for the otherone says of himselfhe
was seen of theTwelve,
and
but
this onehad no Hours of Flesh -

<second leaf (A 841a)>
It is his things that theAngels desire to lookinto
and are notpermitted -